City in Sound; 5th Army

This is Jack Angel, with city and sound. These are stories out of Chicago, city of all things. One among them, the military. Good morning, gentlemen. Welcome to headquarters, 59th -States Army. Headquarters of the 5th United States Army occupy all and more of what was once a 15 -story hotel on South Lake Shore Drive. Its offices look out over the great tip of Lake Michigan. Its officers and men and women look out over the crucial function of defense in 13 Midwest States. Best described for the record by its own briefing officer, Major Don Ketchum. The 5th Army area is approximately 1 ,400 miles in length and 850 miles in width. It is made up of 13 of the 48 United States. An economic comparison of the 59th -States Army area to the total United States. We find that

the 5th Army area makes up 31 % of the land area of the United States. 25 % of the population is contained in the 5th Army area. 24 % of the manufactured products are produced within the 5th Army area. 28 % of the employable people are employed within the 5th Army area. Major General Carl F. Fritchie is chief of staff of the 5th United States Army. We should know more about its functions and perhaps anyone else and we are happy to be with him at this time. I wonder if you described to assert the overall mission of this Army here. The classic definition of the mission of the Army is to defend the nation against its enemies and to ensure domestic tranquility. How can we kind of confine that to the 5th Army then, sir? Within the

overall mission of the 5th Army, our mission is to train, support and prepare units and personnel of this command for combat. To integrate into the overall scheme of the defense of the civilian components of the Army such as the reserve in the National Guard units in the 5th U .S. Army area. Well, our very obviously an Army is trained to make war, should that capacity be necessary. But you also have in this great city some very great civil functions, too, don't you, General? Well, yes. One of the primary responsibilities the Army commander is the promotion of good relations between civil authorities and civilian population and the Army. One thing, I know that most generals don't like to have their ribbons read off. I don't want to do that, but you have a very distinguishing mark on your uniform, the badge of the paratrooper. But you

tell me about that, do you have a record as a paratrooper? Well, I became a paratrooper at age 50 because the Army now and its new tactics is incorporating the third dimension in its development of enemy forces. So, I think all officers have to have some type of that, some type of paratrooper training or be conscious of the fact that we have a third dimension a day, and as much as all our efforts are going into space. And the more you know about aviation and jumping and so forth, the better understanding you have of space. Well, you know, General, maybe I'd get thrown out the window. Here I was in the Air Force for four years and I lived in utter dread of the very first parachute jump. So, it's certainly something to meet an officer who makes a career out of it. Oh, jumping today is a sport. I think everybody likes to do it. Great sport.

Well, thank you very much, General Frenchy. Well, it's a pleasure to talk to you. The organization of headquarters of the United States Army is the type of organization that is found in all of these interior armies. It is a general staff organization. We have the controller, the assistant chief of staff G1, the assistant chief of staff G2, the assistant chief of staff G3, and the assistant chief of staff G4. The controller has general staff supervision over the activities of a finance and accounting special staff section. Colonel Wilford Nublock is the controller for the Fifth Army of the United States. And he has a hundred and twenty million dollars to spend. And as anybody knows, that's not easy. Where do most of these dollars go for payroll, army expenditures and type? No, none of this money goes for pay. Basically, it goes for, as the

largest appropriation indicates, operation and maintenance. The pay of the army is paid separately, and we are not funded for pay of personnel. No, we are funded for any central procurement activities which handle on government contracts led out of Washington. I see. When the army budget is being whacked out, they bring the various controllers into this, or how has that done? Do you merely submit your request and then take what they give you? Or do you have some kind of a say in actually creating the budget? We have very little to say in creating the budget. However, the budget is based upon our requirements, which we do submit to through the commanding general, Kornak or Colonel US Army Command, who in turn consolidates the requirements for the six

armies in the United States and the Military District of Washington. Then in turn, each of the program directors at the departmental level in Washington prepare the budget for preparation for submission to the Bureau of the Budget, or Department of Defense, and then the Bureau of the Budget. And I take it that very often you have that budget trimmed, don't you? Oh, definitely. Our requirements quite frequently, and in fact always exceed what we receive eventually in a firm funding program. Find a course that had cost a lot more money in operations than it did before in prior years. Yes, as you can see during the past four years, our cost here in Fifth Army have increased

from 110 million to approximately 120 million. This has mainly attributed to, I would say, the increased cost of procurement supplies and equipment and maintenance. But as of the moment, it stands at 120 million and a little better. Just a little over 120 million. Thank you, sir. The assistant chief of staff, G1, having to do with personnel, has general staff supervision over the Agenda General, Chaplin, and Provo Marshall, special staff sections. Under the heading G1, Captain Dorothy Garrison, who has a fine old army name, is a captain of the WACD attachment here, a commandant, I should say properly, shouldn't I, Captain Garrison? That's correct, a commandant or commanding officer. How many WACS do you have here? With the present time, our strength is approximately 75 and listed WACS. And what are these young ladies do around here? Well, our jobs are extremely

varied. We have administrative specialists. We have personnel specialists. We have photographers. Well, let's see. What are some of the other MOSs that we have? Signal, communications, personnel. And get a great variety of individuals. Medics, medical specialists. Well, so that when a girl and listen to WACS, she just isn't a secretary transformed a uniform. Oh, definitely not. There's a tremendous variety of jobs that she can become school trained in and can be used in throughout the army. Well, during the war, there was so much interest in WAC recruiting. Do you find that there's still a lot of interest on the part of young ladies to get into the WACS? Well, considering the fact that it's a voluntary program, I think we're doing very, very well in peace times to maintain the number as far as the total WACS is concerned. How long have you been in the service? I've been

in, it'll be six years this August. Well, very obviously you like it. What did you do before you were in the service? Well, prior to coming in, I was a school teacher. And then I was worked in Washington Civil Service for a while prior to that. I'd like to talk to a while to Sergeant Charlotte Danielski from Detroit, Michigan, now the Fifth Army headquarters and the public information office, isn't it? That's right, sir. How long have you been there? I've been working here for about two years. Do you want to stay in the WACS? I certainly do. Well, I hope I hadn't put you on the spot there. No, you haven't. Well, what is it you like about the WACS particularly? Well, among other things, the usual grammar and travel and educational benefits, it's never routine. Well, you've come from Detroit to Chicago now, do you hope to go maybe around the world?

Well, I've been to Germany. Oh, my. You've seen a great deal out there. How long have you been in? Four years. Four years. I understand that you're about to become an officer. Yes, I have my commission now and I plan on going on active duty in August. Well, I see, but is this the rank of sergeant, is your active rank, is it? In the regular Army, yes. In the regular Army, but you will be active as an officer in the fall. It's a second lieutenant, that's right, sir. I have a second lieutenant rating in the reserves right now. Fine, well, that will keep you around for quite a while, won't it? Yes, it will. Well, little did we expect to find a chapel at Fifth Army headquarters here in the center of one of Chicago's busiest districts, but there is one here and a very beautiful one. And I suppose under the heading of G1, here is a chapel with a Lieutenant Colonel James H. Cranford, whom I'd like to talk to for a moment, sir. How many chaplains do you have here?

In the Fifth Army headquarters itself, we have four. Would you know how many chaplains there are throughout the Army area, or approximately? Or approximately 90. That's active duty. What do you find about the spiritual needs of these troops nowadays, the boys that get into service at a relatively early age? Well, we find that the needs of these young men are comparable to the needs that existed while they were in their respective communities. No, it's just a follow -through. That's right, it's a follow -through. As far as the military is concerned, we, of course, we have them there, and we encourage them to participate in religious activities. Do you attempt to all compartmentalize troops into Protestant Catholic in Jewish so that you have a Catholic chaplain for Catholic boys or Protestant chaplain for Protestants? Or do you, more or less,

take them as they come? Well, I will say this that the Army does recognize and appreciate the fact that they are the major faith, the men who adhere to the Protestant belief and the men who adhere to the Catholic belief, and of course those who adhere to the Jewish belief, and we encourage them to participate in their own religious activities. And there is always a chaplain that will meet their spiritual needs, whether they be Catholic, Protestant, or Jewish. I recall during the war, we heard a lot about soldiers who went to the chaplain with problems and grievances and things they couldn't work out. Is that still pretty effective in the peacetime, Army? Well, the chaplain is, of course, among as many duties, he is a counselor. He's trained for that, and since he does know the military, he speaks their language, so to speak. By, he is capable of counseling with the men on many subjects, many problems. Well, Colonel Cranford, I don't suppose I ever did ask a chaplain who he went to.

Well, of course, the only one we can go to is the man upstairs, the good Lord. The assistant chief of staff G3, the major mission is the planning and training of the Army, has special staff section, has special staff supervision over the Army Aviation, special staff section. Scanning down our roster here, I note the name of Colonel Walter J. Haberer, chief reserve components division, falling within the section G3. Colonel Haberer is here, and I should like to ask him what this impressive sounding job consists of. Well, we exercise the G3 responsibility, or rather I should say G3's responsibilities for implementing the supervision organization of the reserve components for the Army commander is exercised through this division. Well,

other reserve programs, still very important part of the Army program, isn't it? It is, it definitely is one of the most important programs. Well, how do you train these reserves here? Well, they are trained in two segments, we will say. We have the table of organization and table of distribution units that are in the troop program. These units are authorized the 48 drills per year and the two weeks tour at summer camp each summer. Then we have non -paid participation in training units that are formed in the reinforcement control groups. The training programs are the same programs as are published for like units of the active Army. Do soldiers develop along these lines in the event of emergency or these men who are readily available? Are they immediately worthwhile to you? I don't think there is any question but that they are definitely

really worthwhile. If you remember General Marshall at the beginning of World War II stated if it hadn't been for the National Guard and the reserve officers, the organized reserve in existence at that time that we would have had a much more difficult time in World War II. And we're in a much more favourable position today than we were then. More of our citizen army. Correct. The Assistant Chief of Staff G4, whose major mission is logistics, has staff supervision or the remaining technical special staff sections. The Captain Victor H. Stoud is the post -signal officer here and this is quite a post -signal here. This is a communication center in a tremendous headquarters skyscraper and I wonder if you could tell us just a little bit about what goes on here. This is a communication center for headquarters of the United States Army. We like to refer to this as the nerve center of the Army because in the highly technical

and mobile Army of today, communications as the primary means whereby all actions and operations are coordinated. In the room we're now standing, it's a semi -automatic keep recording room where messages come in and out. We call it semi -automatic because it requires more personal attendance than some of our other operations. I'd like to talk for a moment to Master Sergeant Fred Wood here. My seat has a combat infantryman badge, also a paratrooper's signature and it must be kind of a slow duty for you, Sergeant. Oh, he gets pretty fast. It gets fast in this place. Is this one of the biggest communication centers you've been in? How does this rank with one saying a combat headquarters or something of that type? Well, worked all types of communication centers

from Army level right on down to rifle company. This is with the exception, I'll say, a department of the Army, the equal of any in the world. This place, by the way, functions right around the clock. In the evenings, the traffic load normally you think slows down. Since we're in communications throughout the world, you have daylight hours over in the Pacific. The people are just getting up and they're starting to work and we catch in the evening the traffic from that portion of the world. And of course, you catch traffic coming in from Europe where there's quite a time chain. So, those things slow down, they never come really to complete halving. Now, you speak of communications around the world here. Are you in communication with the installations outside the Fifth Army? Is that the idea? Yes, we are. We certainly got the facilities to do it. I don't know how to describe

it except to say that it's a tremendous room filled with communications equipment and mighty impressive sight here. Well, it's a nerve center. There's no doubt about that. It keeps the command and general abreast of what's going on all over his Army area and the integration Army area. Thank you. Well, we've taken our own radio equipment here where it's practically lost among the Fifth Army's radio equipment. And this I take it as a communications room of special importance labeled Mars. Now, Mr. Dave Johnson here who runs the room is aware that I'm aware that we're not in contact with Mars but perhaps he could explain just what that designation means. Well, Mars in itself means it's an abbreviation for a military affiliate radio system. And we use the term Mars because it's an abbreviated means of saying what you mean. Now, exactly what our program is, it's a backup means of communication for the Army commander. Well, Dave, how is this

different from the communication center downstairs in which we saw such a vast and complete message service by color type, another automatic means. What would you do here to back up that function in the way of messages? Well, as you know, their communications is line communication where ours is wireless. And if at any time we are needed as an emergency means of communications, I say, go ahead, we would assist them. Now, exactly what we would do, well, we won't know until they tell us. Dave, can you ever pipe in the Sputniks on this apparatus here? Yes, the Russian Sputniks, we are able to pick those up fairly easy. For the receiver here, we have one receiver that goes up to 30 megacitles which will cover the 20 megacitle frequency and we have one other that will go up to 54 megacitles which will cover the

40 megacitle frequency. I only saw briefly just... Well, to me, it sounds just like a letter of code, that's all. The first Sputnik that went up had one tone on 20 megacitles and the one on 40 megacitles had a different tone while the frequencies were different. I see. But other than that, it just sounds like another CW signal or a teletype signal to me. And you think that code, of course, is sending pertinent information down from the... Well, from what I read in the paper, somebody as far as I can. You know, the only information I can give you on that. All right, thank you very much Dave. Okay. Such are the ingredients of the Fifth Army. A command post in a tall building. A few miles, but over a century removed from the place called Fort Dearborn. That was the first. And through the years, the tradition of the Army of the Midwest has grown with the size of its forces

and the specifications of its job. The frontier against the Indian has taken the shape of the whole world. And Chicago, with so much to be defended, is a major fortress in the defense. Its line of command is the Fifth United States Army. This is Jack Angel with George Wilson, an engineer, whose recordings here have imprinted city in sound.